Nintendo 3DS is out! (in Japan) Console sells stupid-big numbers, and the number one game is...

Super Street Fighter IV? Think again...

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I'm not going to tell you that yet. Of course I'm not. You know the rules of the internet by now. Read intro. Click clicky. Get to juicy bit. I don't make 'em, but I've got to stick to 'em. Anyway, the initial point is, the 3DS went on sale in Japan over the weekend and sold a crap-load on its first day,despite fearsof eyeball-popping and city-wide vomitgasms.

Day onesales are reported as being between 371, 326 and Nintendo's full shipment of 400, 000, depending on who you talk to. Either way, retailers were taking pre-orders forSunday's secondshipment before the end of closing on Saturday, which is pretty wise. First-day queues reportedly stretchedout to 900 people, which would have meant a good dose of ransacking, pitchfork-wielding, end-of-James-Whale's-Frankenstein-style death without an orderly system for dishing out the second set.

And the game most liberally setting those early-adopting hearts aflutter? Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle.

Actually though, looking at the rest of that line-up, perhaps that's not surprising. Street Fighter IV has never sold that well in Japan, given that the country still has an arcade culture. And the rest of the selection is of the classical solid-but-underwhelming launch game ilk we've come to know so indifferently over the years.

Are you planning on helping to create similar scenes during the western launches? Or are you waiting until the fairly weighty price tag drops?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.